With two frontrunners for the top job at the United Nations, the Bulgarian government "now finds itself in a possible no-win situation" having to pick either UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova or EU Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva, Politico wrote on Monday.

Even though neither Bokova nor Georgieva "would talk publicaly about their UN ambitions... a behind-the-scenes primary - full of jostling, polling, diplomatic postuting and whispering campaigns - has emerged in Sofia, Brussels, Washington and Moscow".

With the government having to nominate one of the two ladies early next year, it is facing the risk of a "diplomatic Catch 22", with the US and Russia possibly not supporting the respective UN Secretary General candidate, according to Politico (Moscow reportedly prefers Bokova to Georgieva).

Apart from the need for the UN Security Council (including all five of its permanent members) to back a candidate and offer it to the General Assembly to vote, Russia, having been "the driving force behind the push for an East European secretary-general", is a key factor in the race. Both Georgieva and Bokova "speak Russian and have longstanding ties to Russia," Politico notes.

Sofia is yet to officially endorse a candidate by sumbitting a formal letter. An Alpha Research poll is cited according to which 62 percent of respondents see Bokova as competent against 44% for Bokova (25% of participants supporting either candidate).

Politico's article is available here.